Where Brown agrees and disagrees with the neo-cons

Rachel Sylvester has a typically astute piece in today’s Telegraph on how Brown differs from both Blair and Bush. Here’s the key section:

“Mr Brown is different – not just from Mr Bush but also from Mr Blair. While Mr Bush and Mr Blair see the world in black and white, Mr Brown observes more pragmatic shades of grey. For him, foreign policy is based on a “global hub”. His moral compass is strictly for domestic use.

When he cites neo-Conservative writers such as Gertrude Himmelfarb and James Q Wilson with approval, it is their sense of national moral purpose that he admires, rather than their views on international affairs.

While the neo-Conservatives believe that state power should be used to effect change externally – but not internally – Mr Brown thinks the opposite. His priority is to create a trickle down of wealth in Britain rather than a domino effect of democracy around the world.”